This grant application is submitted in request of funds to support the analysis of data from the first two years of an ongoing longitudinal study of the transition from adolescence to adulthood. The focus of this research is on Erikson's concept of ego identity. A sense of ego identity involves having a clear self-definition, i.e., an awareness of those goals, values, and beliefs which are considered personally expressive. Fifty-one males and 82 females in their junior year in high school participated in the first phase of this project. Each was interviewed using Marcia's ego-identity interview schedule and completed Holland's Vocational Preference Inventory, the Bem Sex-Role Inventory and the Expressive Writing Questionnaire. The second wave of interviews was carried out during the senior year of high school. The third wave is scheduled for the year following high school and will be completed prior to the time period covered in this application. Patterns of identity development beginning during the high school years will be traced and comparisons drawn between males and females and between subjects who continue their education and those who enter directly into the labor market. In addition, an investigation will be made of possible antecedents to the adoption of different paths of identity formation.